Banner pair make ‘Killing’

'Core' scribe adapting screenplay

HOLLYWOOD — New Line Cinema and Mutual Film Co. have teamed to produce an adaptation of the Lee Child novel “Killing Floor,” with “The Core” scribe John Rogers adapting the screenplay.

Producers hope to find an action franchise in the book’s Jack Reacher character, an ex-military investigator who solves crimes as he drifts from city to city.

In “Killing Floor,” Reacher wanders into a small Georgia town to reconnect with an older brother but finds himself the key suspect in his brother’s murder. He avenges his brother’s death and uncovers a global counterfeiting ring that brings a corrupt town to justice.

“Killing Floor” was the first of a six-book Reacher series.

Mutual partners Don Granger and Gary Levinsohn will produce the project, with Kevin Messick serving as executive producer. New Line’s Cale Boyter oversees the project with production president Toby Emmerich.

The CAA-repped Rogers is adapting the Matt Reilly bestseller “Ice Station” for Mutual and Paramount Pictures. He is also adapting Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy for 20th Century Fox.

Child, repped by the Agency for the Performing Arts, recently switched publishers from Putnam to Bantam in a $6 million, four-book deal.